


Master of Cruelties

by Loriela



Series: D&D AU [6]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Catra's deck is illegal in France, D&D AU, F/F, Feels, i need to work on my titles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 14:46:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18640261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loriela/pseuds/Loriela
Summary: After some memories of a darker time are brought up, Catra is forced to explain the not so perfect start of her relationship with Adora





	Master of Cruelties

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in preparation for a Catradora wedding fic. I just wanted to channel all the leftover angst into one fic so I could focus the remaining fluff into the wedding
> 
> Also shout outs to my friend who spent almost an hours building that combo for Catra's deck

The Princesses of Power campaign had been rough for Catra and Adora. They normally used the game nights as date nights. A way of showing affection in a more elaborate way, through their characters, but all their characters have been showing in Etheria was aggression and pain. Now, at least, the first campaign was behind them and Catra could finally relax at home with her girlfriend.

She was standing by Adora’s bike, waiting for her. When Adora showed up she looked worried and Catra was immediately put on edge by that “Hey, Adora, is everything ok?” She stepped forward to hold Adora’s hand.

“I was gonna ask you the same thing” Catra was very confused by that statement and it must have shown in her face “It’s just that the way your character’s been acting reminds me a lot of…you know”

That was an odd way of phrasing it. What was her character doing that- Oh no “No no no” Catra sputtered “It’s nothing like that. That shit is all in the past now”

Adora didn’t seen relieved at all by this “It’s just that you acting out all that stuff just…”

“Brings back some bad memories. I get it” Catra pulled her closer “I thought we had put that shit behind for good, but if you want I can just talk to GM and change my character a bit”

“You don’t have to, but please talk to me if things like that start happening again for real” Adora gave her a quick kiss for reassurance “Now let’s go home”

* * *

Catra was enjoying kicking everyone’s ass with her beautiful commander, Alesha, as she usually did late night at the Moon Opal. She had just wiped the floor with some dumbass newcomer who underestimated her, when three of her friends approached her, looking very conspicuous.

Glimmer, Bow and Perfuma all looked like they wanted to talk to her, but didn’t know how to approach her, like she might bite their heads off if they got too close. As much as she enjoyed being feared by her peers, this was was getting tiresome so she just called out “What are you nerds doing?”

The way Glimmer jumped after hearing her voice made Catra giggle a bit, but that died out as she noticed how serious all of them looked “What? Am I scaring away the clientele again?”

“No no no” Bow said defensively.

“It’s just that you and Adora have been looking very tired lately” Perfuma continued. Oh god, could they get on with it already?

Glimmer was either really good at really Catra’s expression or her nerves just couldn’t handle more than 3 seconds of her death stare, for she simply blurted “We overheard you talking to Adora last week”

Catra just sighed and started shuffling her deck “You guys up for some MTG?” she casually asked.

“We actually just wanted to know if things were ok with you two” Bow answered

“Things have been fantastic between me and Adora, but I know you dumbasses are gonna spend the next month torturing yourselves about all the vague shit we said” She put her deck down “So we can talk while we play”

Glimmer and Bow both looked unsure about playing a match with her involved, but Perfuma was almost jumpy, she wanted to be sure Catra was ok and she knew she could take her on “Do you wanna hear the story or not?” Catra spat out.

The two seemed to give in and Perfuma rushed for her spare decks. When everyone was set up Catra drew her seven cards and started talking “So do you remember the closet incident?”

Glimmer rolled her eyes “I try to forget it”

Catra just laughed at her reaction “What if I told you that was not the first time we did that? That was just the first time you caught us” She casually played out her turn as everyone just stared at her “Plains, sol ring, chrome mox imprinting dreadbore, Alesha, go”

“Don’t you just chrome mox me” Glimmer almost shouted and Angella shushed her from the other side of the store “What do you mean by that? How long had you been ending arguments by making out?”

“About a month” She said nonchalantly

“But you only knew each other for two months by then” Bow pointed out

“So what?” Catra shrugged “Did you really think it would take that long for us to start hate fucking each other?”

“You did what?!” this time the three of them shouted and they all got shushed by Angela

Catra sighed “Just let me tell the story, ok?”

* * *

Catra’s apartment was empty for the night as Lonnie, her roommate, was away for some music festival or whatever and this meant Catra could practice with her own favorite instrument: Adora’s screams. She did not care about her neighbors, she just wanted to have lots of angry sex and forget about all her problems.

She was just warming up when Adora pushed her away “We can’t keep doing this” she said breathlessly.

“What? Your friend catches you in the act once and you chicken out?” Catra mocked.

“No” Adora said, in a more assertive tone this time “We can’t just keep ending every argument with sex and pretend that fixes anything”

“Who said anything about fixing shit?”

Adora was taken aback by that comment “Is this all you want?”

“Duh, that is all we’ve been doing since we met” Seriously, how was Adora not grasping that “We don’t make up, we make out. How did you expect anything else from this?”

Adora looked sad for a split second, before turning to cold anger “I’m done with this” She got up and started picking her stuff “If you ever want a real relationship you know where to find me”

Catra took a moment to process what had just happened. Did she just leave? That was not supposed to happen. Angry Adora was supposed to pin her down and have her way with her, not just get up and leave.

* * *

“Alesha brings back the entombed Master of Cruelties and that is GG, Bow” Catra announced.

Everyone looked stunned for a second. Perfuma seemed to be the first to recover her composure “I’m sorry, Catra, but that was simply awful of you”

“The way I treated Adora or killing Bow on turn two?” Catra asked, mostly just to rub it in that she killed Bow on turn two.

“Both” Bow exclaimed “Seriously, why would you say any of that?”

“Oh, you know how I was back then. Always acting angry and pissing off the people around me so I could avoid dealing with my own emotions” She said nonchalantly. She put all that shit in her past and got better as a person or at least she hoped so.

“Was?” Glimmer asked jokingly, but one stare from Catra was enough for her to back down with the teasing “Sorry, but how exactly did you fix that?”

“I did something I swore I would never do” Catra straightened her posture “I apologized”

* * *

One week. Catra could not believe it took only one week for her to give in. Adora was just some random girl she met at the store, she should not be reacting like this. Who was she kidding? She could say that shit all she wanted, that wouldn’t change the truth and it would only make things harder. God damn her stupid pride.

She gesture for Adora to follow her outside the store and she waited. Every fiber of her body telling her to abort mission and run, but there was still something inside her that needed this to happen. She didn’t know what part of her she hated the most.

When Adora showed up she didn’t look angry or sad, she was impassive and Catra didn’t know how to deal with impassive. They took a quick and silent ride to Catra’s apartment and just sat there in her room. Catra trying to gather her courage and Adora waiting for her to say something.

“I’m sorry” The words felt like teeth being pulled out “I shouldn’t have said all that shit. You mean much more to me than all of that and I’ll try to make this shit work, ok?”

Adora remained impassive and Catra felt like her stare would burn her to a pile of shame and ash. Every second of silence was more excruciating than the last. Catra would say anything if it meant having Adora react in any way.

“Why?” Adora asked. Catra was dumbfounded for a moment. There were plenty of different whys for this particular situation “If you really didn’t mean it, why did you say any of that?”

“Because I’m a huge mess that doesn’t know how to deal with her own feelings” She didn’t even think, she just blurted out her answer “Is that what you want to hear?”

“No” Adora let the word hang in the air for a moment “I have to know why you feel like this. If we are gonna have a relationship we need to deal with that” Catra was divided between feeling relief for Adora finally showing some emotion or complete and utter despair at the idea of having to delve into that mess.

She started tapping her foot, feeling nervous as she tried to put all her feelings into words. After some thinking she sighed “You know that look on your face when you start talking about stuff you like? How you get all cheerful and you feel like you can forget about the world, because all that matters is that one silly hobby you wanna talk about?” Catra gave her a weak smile “That was probably why I started having a crush on you. Like, you were so happy that it was impossible not to be happy too and how do you not get a crush on a girl that looks like that when she talks about her hobbies. All you can think is ‘damn, if I got her to talk like that about me I would be the happiest girl alive’”

Catra chuckled “Well, I never got to be like that. Every time I talked about anything I cared I had to justify it, every time I said I liked something I had to prove it, every time I played a game I had to be the best at it. If I didn’t no one would take me seriously and I would just be another fake nerd girl. I’m only as good at magic as I am today, because the only way people would believe I wasn’t just lucky is if I never lost, and then I just move here, find the Moon Opal and find you and suddenly all the shit I went through was for nothing. You get to be nerdy, you get to like things and have fun with them, you get to be gay and no one fucking questions it and suddenly all the things I fucking love about you start making me feel worse and worse. Why do you get to do all that and I don’t? Why did so many people hate me and hurt me, but you get to just live your goddamn life? I wanted to hate you, to hurt you, but I just fucking can’t”

* * *

“Please, tell me the crying is because of the story” Catra sighed “I told you not to kill the Master of Cruelties, Glimmer, it’s not my fault if you got killed two turns later”

Oh god, all three of them were crying now “Catra, we love you so much” Bow moved to hug her and she quickly pushed him away, but Perfuma and Glimmer took advantage of her distraction and hugged her too. Great, now she was being crushed by three crying nerds. Why were her friends like this?

“Can we please get back to the game? I still have to kill Perfuma” They slowly returned to their sits, but she could’ve sworn she caught Castaspella snapping a picture before they let go of her.

Glimmer wiped away her tears “Ok, what did you guys do after all that?”

“We avoided each other for another week” Catra could see the ‘What?!’ coming, so she just raised her hand to stop them “We agreed that we needed to think about things and that spending time together would only make things worse. All things considered I would probably do exactly what my Princesses of Power character did and things would go to shit”

The three collectively let out a sigh of relief. Perfuma drew her next card and cheerfully announced “Merciless Eviction, targeting creatures” Catra cursed under her breath “And what did you do after that week?”

“Well, we met at my apartment again and we had an incredibly sappy moment talking about all the things we learned about ourselves and how we now trusted each other and then we did what any reasonable adult women would do in a moment like that and just fell asleep while hugging and crying” All of them moved to say something again “None of you can judge me and you know it” They all put their hands down and looked expectantly at her to continue “The next morning I taught her how to play magic, she sucked at it and we just laughed at that together. She looked so happy for losing that I just had to kiss her and we agreed that was our real first kiss”

Bow made a sound that could only be described as a pterodactyl screeching “You two are so adorable. I thought I couldn’t love the two of you any more than I already did”

Glimmer just nodded at that “I’m just surprised you managed to deal with all that in just two weeks”

Catra laughed at that, a lot “Oh no no no” she tried her best to regain her composure “We had to deal with ghosts of that shit for like a year. Why do you think I still refer to my childhood as my ‘vaguely tragic backstory’? But we haven’t had to deal with any of that for years now. That is why my P.o.P. character borrows so much from that drama, I just felt that shit was far enough in our past that we wouldn’t feel bad for using it on a character, but I guess I messed that up too”

“Well, I’m glad you two worked things out in the end, but speaking of losing at magic” Perfuma smiled at her “Sorin’s Vengeance triggering Sanguine Bond, I win”

“Oh fuck me”

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my tumblr (shera-dnd.tumblr.com) for more Catradora nonsense


End file.
